How can stories be put back together when their pieces are scattered across continents? What motivates someone to go in search of a sculptor whose public portraits remain visible in many cities of Europe and Central and North America, while their own identity and life have been largely lost to history? These are questions I wanted to put to Dr Daniel Zec, who has made the study of Oscar Nemon his life’s work, and the subject of his PhD thesis. Daniel Zec grew up close to Nemon’s birthplace in Osijek, in Croatia. The city formed part of former Yugoslavia for most of Nemon’s lifetime. Daniel Zec teaches at the Faculty of the Humanities of Osijek University, which is shown below, having previously been a curator in the Osijek Museum. As we will discover, he has exciting plans for 2026, 120 years after Nemon’s birth in Osijek in 1906. Back then, the town was still part of the Austro-Hungarian empire, and a thriving provincial capital on the river Drava, fifteen miles upstream of where it meets the Danube. Daniel and I have known each other, and collaborated on exploring Nemon’s work for many years now. It was a great pleasure to touch base with him on his research and publications, and understand his drive to encourage the wider academic community to give Nemon the recognition that his work merits.
AH: As I mentioned in my introduction, you are the leading expert on Oscar Nemon, having researched a PhD on his work, and published and presented many academic articles. Can I ask you how and where Nemon first entered your life, and how you have been shaped by working on him for so many years?
DZ: What perhaps distinguishes me as a leading expert on Oscar Nemon is the singular focus I bring to his work as the only dedicated art historian in this field. However, I would hesitate to claim sole proprietorship over this domain. Aurelia Young, Nemon’s daughter, has also devoted herself to researching her father’s biography, resulting in Finding Nemon, which she published with Jonathan Hale a few years ago. Furthermore, there’s yourself, Alice, whose combination of knowledge and profound sensitivity towards Nemon’s work contributes significantly. Together, we form a small yet dedicated circle of three aficionados.
I first encountered the name Oscar Nemon when I was offered the position of curator at the Museum of Fine Arts in Osijek in 2007. The museum housed several pieces by Nemon, and at that time, the museum curator, Vlastimir Kusik, was in the process of editing a book on Nemon. As a newly appointed curator, I started research on the sculptors who had left their mark in Osijek during the first half of the 20th century, among whom was the Osijek-born Oscar Nemon. This exploration became the focus of my Master’s thesis and later culminated in a book in 2014. Additionally, I also took on the task of editing Nemon’s memoirs and saw them through to publication in 2016. Both books were very well-received within the Croatian academic community and garnered appreciations from art historians and museum societies. Encouraged by this, I resolved to dedicate my research exclusively to the oeuvre of Oscar Nemon, which eventually became the subject of my doctoral thesis.
Despite encountering scepticism that suggested little remained to be uncovered about Nemon, I remained steadfast in my conviction. While many were captivated by the extraordinary life of Nemon, my fascination extended beyond his biography to his artistic output, particularly his mastery in portraiture. Through my research on Nemon, I honed my skills as an art historian and developed a specialization in sculpture, with a particular focus on portrait sculpture.
Speaking about the portrait sculpture, I find it teeters on the edge of art historical interest; within the parameters and standards established by modernist art history, it resides in a liminal realm, delicately poised “between life and death.” Recognizing this, I chose to delve deeper into the study of this area, viewing Nemon’s work as a lens through which to explore this underappreciated aspect of art history, whether within the context of Britain or Croatia.
AH: This seems like a very suggestive and fruitful approach. I believe that you also grew up in the Osijek region, and initially trained as an artist before moving into museum curation and scholarship. Has this influenced your responses to Nemon’s work?
DZ: During my childhood, I was constantly drawing, harbouring aspirations of becoming an artist like my father, who had attended art academy. However, circumstances led me down a different path, and I pursued studies in art history and archaeology instead – a decision that, in hindsight, I consider to be the right one. Despite not pursuing a career as an artist, the sensibility and innate understanding of art that I developed during my youth have remained with me. These qualities have served as invaluable complements to my academic education. As a result, I approach Nemon’s work with a deeper understanding and appreciation, enriched by my personal connection to the creative process.
AH: That’s very evident in your responses Daniel. What made you feel that you wanted to devote your professional life to piecing back together and analysing Nemon’s work?
DZ: Initially, my motivation stemmed from the realization that Nemon’s work had not been thoroughly researched. I’ve always been compelled to delve into subjects that are unexplored, underestimated, or marginalized. At the outset of my research, I found that Nemon’s work was unfairly overlooked and marginalized. While there is still much ground to cover, I am optimistic that I am moving in the right direction towards fostering a re-evaluation and appreciation of his work.
AH: Can you tell us some of the challenges you encountered along the way, and how you navigated them? Did you have any strong supporters?
The challenges I faced were twofold. Firstly, there was the practical and logistical hurdle: there was very little material available, both in terms of archives and artworks, in Croatia. Consequently, I had to devise ways to travel abroad to locations such as Belgium and England, where such materials were preserved. Secondly, I encountered the challenge of convincing the art historian community that Oscar Nemon was a subject worthy of exploration.
My initial supporters were my colleagues at the Osijek Museum of Fine Arts (see the photo below), who recognized and embraced my fervour as a researcher, allowing me to pursue my passion even when it clashed with my day-to-day responsibilities as a museum curator. Subsequently, Dr Dragan Damjanović from the Art History Department, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb, provided invaluable support as a mentor throughout my dissertation. A pivotal moment in securing substantial support occurred when I had the privilege of meeting Aurelia Young during her visit to Osijek to deliver a talk on Oscar Nemon. This encounter blossomed into a year-long friendship and collaboration. Aurelia graciously introduced me to you, Alice, and our collaboration and friendship proved to be indispensable in every respect. Without the invaluable support of the Nemon Estate, I would not have been able to bring my research to fruition.
AH: Aurelia and I certainly feel we are in your debt at so many levels, Daniel. Aside from your professional scholarship and research, unlike us, you are able to read Croatian, which gives you a completely different access to Nemon’s correspondence with his family and people from his earliest life. You also have firsthand access to all the Croatian materials, which include some of Nemon’s earliest work. I believe there were already a small number of articles and interviews with Nemon in his lifetime undertaken by Croatian curators and scholars. Could you tell us something about them?
DZ: I was fortunate not to begin my research from a point where nothing had been done yet. Altogether, seven articles by Croatian historians and art historians have been published between 1967 and 2007, mainly aiming to summarize and synthesize Nemon’s life and work. Three scholars from Osijek made significant contributions, laying the groundwork for further research. Among them, I must highlight Vlastimir Kusik, my esteemed late colleague and curator at the Osijek Museum, who authored several articles on Nemon and had the opportunity to interview him. As my research progressed beyond the scope of previous scholarship on Nemon, Kusik generously provided me with all the materials he had gathered for a book on Nemon, including Nemon’s memoirs. In 2016, I published these materials (in Croatian) under the title “Oscar Nemon: Memoirs, Essays, Reviews, and Records.” In addition to Nemon’s fascinating draft memoirs, I included previously published contributions by various authors dedicated to Nemon’s life and work.
AH: You were effectively taking Nemon’s work back into his language of origin, and publishing it in his country of origin, which was a groundbreaking act, not least because so many Croatians share Nemon’s history of migration. While based in Osijek, you have travelled to many different countries, and investigated different libraries on the trail of Nemon’s work. Would you be able to tell us about some of these?
DZ: The archival material related to Oscar Nemon that I have found, collected, and reviewed so far, includes letters, manuscripts, sketches and drawings, photographs, and audio recordings. The archives and institutions where this specific archival material is currently located, based on the extent of the represented material, are: the Henry Moore Institute, Leeds; Oscar Nemon Studio Museum and Archive, Estate of Oscar Nemon, Pleasant Land, Boars Hill, Oxford; the archive of the Museum of Fine Arts in Osijek; the Churchill Archives Centre – Churchill College, Cambridge; the Archives et Musée de la Littérature, Brussels; the Westminster Collection, London; the Freud Museum, London; and the State Archives in Osijek.
The Henry Moore Institute archive in Leeds holds the most extensive archival material related to Oscar Nemon.
The archival material has been received by the mentioned archives in England through your donation, Alice, as the heir and custodian of the entire Nemon Estate. It’s important to highlight that you’ve allocated segments of the Nemon Estate’s archival material based on theme and content, directing it to various museums and cultural institutions in England pertinent to such material. Here, this material has been meticulously processed in accordance with archival standards, ensuring accessibility to researchers and the public.
The selection of the Henry Moore Institute in Leeds – a distinguished art history institute and research centre specializing in sculpture – as the central repository for storing and managing archival material pertaining to Oscar Nemon is both justified and logical for several reasons. The Institute boasts a comprehensive infrastructure comprising interconnected components: a museum collection that includes several sculptures by Oscar Nemon, generously donated by the Nemon Estate; an exceptionally high-quality and extensive library housing a vast array of publications on sculpture; and a specialized archive catering primarily to sculptors who have worked in Great Britain.
In 2012. I was awarded with the Henry Moore Institute visiting research fellowship, and as a Henry Moore Institute fellow I undertook a study visit to England in 2012 (Leeds, London, Oxford, Boar’s Hill – Pleasant Land, Cambridge). During my research in Leeds, my primary focus was on archival documents housed at the Henry Moore Institute. However, I also conducted research on material from all the other institutions previously mentioned in England.
As part of projects funded by the Croatian Science Foundation, I briefly stayed in Brussels in 2016, and once again in England in 2018. In Brussels, a city where Nemon spent more than a decade and made a significant impact in portrait sculpture, I conducted my research at the Musées royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, L’Institut Emile Vandervelde, Royal Palace, Biblioteque Royale Belgique, and Monnaies et Médailles.
AH: That’s a magnificent list, Daniel. You have also undertaken the difficult task of researching what happened to Nemon’s immediate family who remained in Yugoslavia during World War II. His mother Eugenie Neumann née Adler was shot in Banjica Concentration Camp in Serbia in 1942 with his brother Desider Neumann, while his grandmother, Johanna Adler née Schrenger also died in 1942, either in Auschwitz, or while being transported there. These were only three of Nemon’s twenty-four relatives who were murdered in the Shoah or Holocaust. The photo below is of ‘Humanity’, Nemon’s Holocaust memorial, which was unveiled in Osijek in 1965 and now stands in Oscar Nemon Park in Osijek. How did it impact you, working in this area, and do you feel it influenced your reading of Nemon’s postwar work, not least his preoccupation with Winston Churchill and his circle?
DZ: Nemon had long held the belief, dating back to his early days, that portraiture constituted an intrusion into the private character of an individual. Similarly, the act of writing someone’s biography can be seen as a similar intrusion into their life. Maintaining scholarly objectivity and distance in such pursuits proves challenging; inevitably, a biographer forms attachments and relates to their subject, regardless of the vast spatial and temporal distances between them. Moreover, the artist’s work cannot be disentangled from their life; their biography is intricately interwoven with their creative processes. As one art historian aptly stated: “The life of the creator is embedded within the artwork they create, much like the creative impulse guides life itself.” Nemon’s intriguing biography is laden with painful losses – losses of family members whose lives were erased by the Nazi death industry. About his own difficult and tragic memories of the Holocaust, Oscar Nemon remains largely silent both in his sculptural work and his memoirs. There are no direct references or evocations of the horrors and destruction of war, the annihilation of human lives. But I find such references in some details – for instance, the way Nemon modelled the surface of some of his post-war monuments: the crumpled, rugged, fractured and scarred surface, reminiscent of decay and disintegration, is intricately linked with existentialist philosophy and served as a fundamental expressive tool in the works of sculptors from the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s, who, by emphasizing materiality, were associated with the spirit of the art informel. Comparative examples of this treatment of sculptural surface can be found in the sculpture of Alberto Giacometti and Jean Fautrier, as well as Germaine Richier and Jean Dubuffet, and to a lesser extent among British sculptors Kenneth Armitage and Lynn Chadwick or Elizabeth Frink.
AH: To those very insightful and persuasive comments, I would add the many sketches of mourning groups which Nemon created in the aftermath of World War II, which seem to have been ideas for further figurative compositions similar to ‘Humanity’, in Osijek, shown above. The sketches are a special interest of mine, as you know Daniel. I see Nemon in this respect as what Daniel Libeskind termed a ‘paper architect’, referring to his own career during the period when he was teaching, but his designs were not yet being built. From talking to him at the end of his life, I know that Nemon always wished he had the resources and commissions to be able to develop this strand of his work further. With the exception of ‘Humanity’, and a further composition ‘Heredity’, it was a deep and enduring regret for him that he was not able to progress beyond initial conceptual sketches, and, occasionally, maquettes. We have a sketch for ‘Humanity’ on La Mamounia hotel notepaper, which was where Nemon met Churchill in 1951. ‘Humanity’ was unveiled in Osijek in 1965, suggesting how Nemon kept the project in his mind over a sustained period of time, as he sculpted first Churchill, and then his wider circle. Nemon used the same hotel notepaper for his earliest sketches of Churchill. Nemon is shown with his baby son Falcon in Oxford in 1941, a year before his mother, brother and grandmother were murdered in, or being transported from, former Yugoslavia. The sculptures he made of Falcon at the time, later became the basis of the figure of the child being held up to the future in ‘Humanity’.
Thinking about Nemon’s deepest preoccupations as a portrait sculptor, you recently published a comprehensive and deeply insightful analysis of Nemon’s portraits of Freud in Croatia’s leading art history journal, Radovi Instituta za povijest umjetnosti / Journal of the Institute of Art History Readers can follow the link to your illustrated essay, written in English, here. The cover image is below. Could you tell us something about writing this, and how the process of close scrutiny of Nemon’s successive portraits of Freud informed your understanding of his development as an artist?
DZ: My recently published research paper “Oscar Nemon’s Portraits of Sigmund Freud” is a revised and translated version of the chapter with the same title in my doctoral dissertation. I believe that Nemon’s successive portraits of Freud reflect a nuanced development in his artistic interpretation, marked by a deepening exploration of the subject’s psyche and a growing mastery of sculptural expression. Both Nemon’s earliest and latest portraits of Freud are exceptional pieces of portraiture, yet the primary disparity lies in their stylistic approach. The portrait from 1931 demonstrates a keen understanding of Freud’s significance and a skilful interpretation of his likeness, while also surpassing mere physical representation. However, it is the later portrait that truly showcases Nemon’s maturation as an artist. Here, Nemon moves beyond mere physical representation to imbue his sculpture with a sense of dynamism and psychological depth. Nemon captures the essence of Freud’s inner world, unveiling his vulnerability and resilience in the face of aging and illness. The shift towards elongated proportions and expressive surfaces reflects a deeper exploration of Freud’s psyche and physical decline. Moreover, Nemon’s decision to forgo detailed attributes like spectacles in the later portrait underscores his commitment to portraying Freud’s essence with raw authenticity. This departure from external features towards a more introspective and psychologically driven depiction speaks about Nemon’s artistic vision and sensitivity. In essence, Nemon’s successive portraits of Freud not only chronicle the subject’s aging process but also reflect the artist’s own growth.
AH: This is such a thoughtful and acute engagement, Daniel. I found the essay illuminating to read, as I am sure people will who follow the link. I believe you have also presented your research on Nemon at academic conferences in Europe and the UK. How has it been received?
DZ: I have showcased my research at six academic conferences spanning from 2012 to 2023, held in London, Zagreb, Osijek, Split, Durham, and Bonn. I’m pleased to say it has been received very well. It’s been gratifying to see my findings resonating with academic audiences, sparking insightful discussions, and contributing to the broader discourse on art history and sculpture. It’s been particularly rewarding to witness Oscar Nemon’s work being brought into the academic spotlight through these conferences. His contributions to sculpture and portraiture have garnered renewed attention and appreciation within scholarly circles; Nemon’s work directs our attention to portrait sculpture in the realm of 20th-century art.
AH: These are real and valuable achievements, and will open the path to other scholars I am sure. Could I close by asking you about your future plans regarding Nemon’s works. I believe you are working on a book currently? When can we expect to see this?
I’m currently working on a book about the life and work of Oscar Nemon. It’s essentially a revised and expanded version of my dissertation. The plan is to publish it in Croatia in 2026, which coincides with the 120th anniversary of Nemon’s birth. Alongside the book release, I’m organizing exhibitions in Osijek and Zagreb for the same year. These exhibitions will showcase Nemon’s life and artwork, drawing from materials in Croatian museums, public institutions, and private collections, as well as from the Oscar Nemon Estate. The exhibition would also include, if possible – depending on financial resources – sculptures from Belgium.
AH: This is really exciting news Daniel. We will keep following this story on the Nemon website. Meanwhile I’ll close this interview with your list of existing publications for scholars and readers to delve into. Thank you again for speaking with me.
Daniel Zec
Oscar Nemon Bibliography
BOOKS
- Daniel Zec (ed.), Oscar Nemon: memoari, eseji, osvrti i zapisi [Oscar Nemon: Memoirs, Essays, Reviews, and Records] (Osijek: Muzej likovnih umjetnosti, 2016)
CHAPTERS IN A BOOK:
- Daniel Zec, „Mladost i počeci: Oscar Nemon (1906 – 1985)“ [Youth and the beginnings: Oscar Nemon (1906 – 1985)], in: Osječki kipari prve polovice 20. stoljeća: Leović, Živić, Nemon, Švagel-Lešić [Osijek sculptors of the first half of the 20th century] (Osijek: Muzej likovnih umjetnosti, 2014), 179–228.
- Daniel Zec, „Oscar Nemon’s System of Universal Ethics“, in: Art and Politics in Europe in the Modern Period, Conference Proceedings, ed. Dragan Damjanović, Lovorka Magaš Bilandžić, Željka Miklošević, Jeremy Walton (Zagreb: Sveučilište u Zagrebu, Filozofski fakultet, FF-Press, 2019), 41–52.
- Daniel Zec, „Portret, portretna skulptura, mimetizam i modernistička paradigma: vrijednosno pozicioniranje portretnoga kiparstva Oscara Nemona“ [Portrait, Portrait Sculpture, Mimesis, and the Modernist Paradigm: Evaluating the Significance of Oscar Nemon’s Portrait sculpture], in: Pojavnosti moderne skulpture u Hrvatskoj: protagonisti, radovi, konteksti [Manifestations of Modern Sculpture in Croatia: Protagonists, Works, Contexts], ed. Dalibor Prančević (Split: Filozofski fakultet, Sveučilište u Splitu, 2021), 88–110.
- Daniel Zec, „Shaping the Image of British Political Leaders: Oscar Nemon’s Portraits of Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher“, in: Portraiture and the Construction of Identity, Ad-Picturam, 2024 (forthcoming publication)
JOURNALS:
- „Oscar Nemon’s Center of Universal Ethics Project: Modernist Tendencies and Russian Constructivism“, Peristil, 2024 (forthcoming publication)
PRESENTATIONS AT ACADEMIC CONFERENCES
- International academic conference New Perspectives on Post War Art in Britain – cross-cultural engagements, Austrian Cultural Forum, London, March 16, 2012.
Presentation: “Oscar Nemon in perspective: from pre-war Vienna and Belgium to post-war Britain”
- National academic conference Dr. Danica Pinterović – rad i djelovanje, Museum of Slavonia, Osijek, February 14, 2015.
Presentation: „Danica Pinterović i njezini suvremenici – umjetnici: Josip Leović i Oscar Nemon“ [Danica Pinterović and Her Contemporaries: Josip Leović and Oscar Nemon]
- International academic conference Art and Politics in Europe in the Modern Period, University of Zagreb, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Zagreb, June 29 – July 2, 2016.
Presentation: „Oscar Nemon’s Temple of Universal Ethics Project“
- International academic conference Portraiture, Centre for Visual Arts and Culture, Durham University, Business School, Durham, July 13 – July 15, 2018.
Presentation: „Portraits and (in) institutions: Example of Oscar Nemon“
- International academic conference Sculpture on the Crossroads Between Sociopolitical Pragmatism, Economic Possibilities and Aesthetical Contemplation, University of Split, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Split, October 4 – 5, 2018.
Presentation: „On Holocaust Memorials in Croatia: the Osijek Example“
- International academic conference Portraiture and the Construction of Identity, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn, Kunsthistorisches Institut, Bonn, March 30 – April 1, 2023.
Presentation: „Portrait Sculpture as a Mean of Construction of Identity of British Political Leaders: Effigies of Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher by Oscar Nemon“